audio ↪ un: 012601

[craters]

We've all had some time to settle in. Hopefully everyone's holding up all right!

For those of you I haven't spoken with, my name's Sakura. I'm both a doctor and healer and I have a little ad hoc clinic down by the docks. （ a helpful location ping follows this. ） If you ever find yourself needing medical care, please reach out and let me know. There's at least one other person here with medical experience that I know of as well, but I'll let them speak up if they want to make themselves known — and I'm happy to collaborate with anyone else, none of us can be everywhere at once.

（ paging terraria, party of bird. ）

As for my reason for addressing you all... I'm looking to keep blood on hand for medical emergencies, transfusions and any surgeries that may be necessary. If anyone is willing to come down to the clinic and give a donation, it'd be very appreciated. I promise it only hurts a little! And you'll even get a candy afterwards! While supplies last.

Those with O-negative and O-positive types would be ideal. If you don't happen to know what your blood-type is, I can run a test for you.

Thanks everyone!

（ she's almost finished, and it seems like that might have been the last thing... but a few minutes later, she clicks the feed on again: ）

I'm still looking for information on anyone who's undergone the soulbond as well. Purely for research purposes. You can reply anonymously if you'd like, or privately if that's easier. I promise anything you say will be kept confidential.

Comments

[acknowledgement]

hehehehe tell me what Sasuke’s type says about him!
i gotta know!

that’s a great idea!

[One that he’ll unfortunately forget to facilitate, naturally.

Once the conversation is turned private, Naruto falls silent for a time.]

thanks Sakura-chan
it's dumb and arrogant to think i can solve our problems alone
but…

i don’t want to let anyone down
or put more burdens on you two
and i know what you’ll say to that
it’s just this doubt i haven’t been able to shake lately

[craters]

（ she just leaves the whole thing private, not really wanting to entertain a dual conversation — ）

Ah, Sasuke-kun? His type is AB... it indicates a complicated dual-nature... mysterious, aloof, confident. Sound like anyone we know? Haha.

（ it's not the first time she's been caught off guard by how mature he's becoming — she's gradually becoming less surprised by it, but it does make her realize just how little they've actually spoken in the last year. one he hasn't lived yet, may never get the chance to live at all.

it's a sharp and present pain, one that won't leave her be. she's furious, heartsick and so tired of all the ways their world has used them, and how it will just carry on without them just the same. but it's worse, for naruto and sasuke than it could ever be for her. ）

You're not letting anyone down. （ let's just get that out of the way. ） You'll do your best the same as always, and it might not be enough. And that's okay. We can't win every fight, Naruto, we've just been lucky so far.

It's not a burden for me, and I bet if you ask Sasuke he'd say the same thing. We are your friends. We care more about whether or not you're okay than whether or not we have to help you carry something so you're not alone.

But it's okay to have doubts, too, you know?

[acknowledgement]

[So, Sasuke’s blood type is AB… Naturally, Naruto pauses to compare it to his own. A detail like that definitely has nothing to do with their bond, and yet he can’t help but obsess over it regardless. Does this mean that he wouldn’t be able to donate his blood to Sasuke if his best friend required it? The possibility doesn’t sit well with him. Why couldn’t he be O–, a more useful blood type?]

hey Sakura-chan…
is B type compatible with AB?
if Sasuke needed it, would i be able to give him my blood?
i mean…AB has B in it…right?
i'm guessing i can’t give you blood

[Naruto doesn’t really want to read the rest of her message—already knowing the kind of sentiments that it’ll contain—but he does so anyway. Though he nods absently in agreement with what she says, the jinchūriki also acknowledges how little it does to change his mind on the subject. The only point he feels necessary to contest, however:]

i can’t believe that
about us just being lucky
not after everyone’s hard work and determination
everyone’s personal sacrifices
the deliberate choices they all made
luck had nothing to do with that

and if it WAS just luck…
why should anyone bother to make an effort to fight in the first place?

[Hard work and determination are all he has to offer, in the end.]

thanks Sakura-chan…
i hate saying it…but i've had a lotta doubts since coming here…
don’t worry though! we’re gonna figure this out!

[craters]

AB+ recipients can receive blood from every other type, so you would be able to give Sasuke-kun blood. I don't need blood, though, remember! I have my seal... so you wouldn't need to be concerned about me! ✌️

I don't mean to say it's only luck that got us all that far, it's just... a combination of luck and all the rest. People like Lady Tsunade's brother, or Dan...

I'm not saying you haven't given your all. I know you have. But other people have given it too, and still failed, and it would be disrespectful of them to say we just worked harder or were better shinobi.

Whether it's fate, or luck, or just... random chance.

（ kurama was what made naruto isolated as a child. but that isolation shaped him, made him want to try, to strive, to do better and be better. if he hadn't been a jinchūriki, how much would his life have changed? would he have ever been put in the position he was in, to save them all? would he have survived it?

and if she had never learned from lady tsunade...

(she still remembers holding his heart in her hand. manually simulating a heartbeat. it was the hardest thing she's ever done, but there had been no room for terror in that instant. failure meant his death.)

her fingers curl in against her palm, and she has to fight down a wave of panic that builds from all her brain's dark what-ifs. ）

I'm not worried, though! If there's a way, we'll find it together. All three of us.